


Queen of the Jungle

by MedieavalBeabe



Category: Disney Tarzan Genderbend
Genre: Disney Genderbend, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-15
Updated: 2014-05-15
Packaged: 2018-01-24 23:04:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1620173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MedieavalBeabe/pseuds/MedieavalBeabe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Genderbend version of the Disney Channel show The Legend of Tarzan</p>
            </blockquote>





	Queen of the Jungle

It was a hot day, as it often was, in Africa; the perfect weather for playing, and Tope was agitated. After having played a trick on Thema that had resulted in him being squashed underneath her giant frame, he had spotted Tarzana swinging on a vine a little way off, with John in tow. 

“Aw!” smiled Thema. “Tarzana’s in love!”

“She forgot us,” Tope muttered, folding his arms, more angry at Jack for taking up more of his best friend’s time than Tarzana for allowing him to. 

High up above them, Tarzana performed one of her classic vine swinging movement before landing on the tree branch beside Jack. He grinned at her. “Impressive, although, rather traditional. Now, watch this.”

Tarzana watched in amusement that quickly turned to panic as Jack leapt for a vine and missed it with a startled yelp. She quickly leapt after him, grabbed him and swung them both back to safety. Jack managed a laugh of relief. “Thank you. You saved me. Also rather traditional.”

Tarzana smiled and stroked his face. “That’s enough lessons for today.”

“Oh, nonsense, you know what they say about falling off a horse,” Jack replied, getting to his feet and taking a firm hold of a vine. 

“What’s a horse?” Tarzana frowned. 

“Um...well, it’s an animal that one’s supposed to get back on after one falls off.” Jack swung over to the tree house. Tarzana followed him. 

Below, Tope shook his head. “Pah! I’ve seen hippos that could swing better’n that!”

“Tope?” Thema glanced at him. “Are you jealous?”

“Me? Of Jack?” Tope looked offended. “Oh, come on!”

Even as he said it, Tarzana dropped from the tree and landed in front of them. “Hey, what’s going on?”

“Oh, Tarzana, we were just talking about you and the Mister, only not in a gossipy way,” Thema gabbled. 

“As a matter of fact,” Tope corrected her, “I was just saying that your husband, in no way, shape or form belongs in the-”

“Snake!” Tarzana cried, pointing over his shoulder. Tope yelped and looked around, but there was nothing there. “Made you look,” Tarzana grinned. 

“Why, you-!” Tope leapt on her and they began to wrestle, rolling over and over until they landed in an old tree trunk covered in cobwebs. 

“Can’t you girls ever play nicely?” sighed Thema.

“I’m a boy!” Tope growled. 

“Really?” The look in Thema’s eyes indicated that she was joking. 

“Watch it, you!” Tope said, pointing to her. 

“Spiders!” Thema exclaimed, seeing them on him, and she immediedtly started shaking him up and down. 

Tope shook her off. “Get a grip on yourself; they’re just little spiders!”

Tarzana laughed and then yelped as one that was crawling on her sank its pinpoint fangs into her shoulder. Crossly she flicked it off and then Tope started wrestling her again. Thema shook her head. “Will you two never learn?”

***

Jack was painting a blue and yellow jungle parrot when Tarzana, now sporting the red mark of the spider bite on her shoulder, popped up behind him. “I like it,” she said. 

Jack yelped and jumped, knocking the easel over but Tarzana grabbed it and set it right. Jack breathed out. “I still haven’t got used to you doing that,” he smiled, and then, noticing the mark on her arm, he dropped his paintbrush. “Tarzana, what’s that?”

“Nothing.”

“It doesn’t look like nothing.”

“It’s just a spider bite.”

“Spider?”

***

“Oh, it was horrible!” Thema exaggerated. “With twenty legs and dripping fangs!” 

Tarzana smiled. “It had eight legs,” she corrected her, “no fangs, bright orange with a round head.”

“Fascinating,” said Professor Porter, rifling through her books on insects. “Bright orange? Let me see.” She found what she thought was the right page and frowned. “Oh dear, oh dear.”

“What is it, Mother?” asked Jack, worried. 

“Wrong book!” The Professor found the right one. “Ah.”

“What?” Jack pressed. 

The Professor looked up, gravely. “We don’t have much time before...well...before she...”

“What?” Thema persisted. “Give me a hint!”

“Expires,” Jack put in, feeling his heart sinking. 

Thema gasped and then promptly fainted, on top of Tope. 

“But I feel fine,” Tarzana insisted. 

“Exactly!” Tope wriggled out from underneath Thema as she came around. “This is Tarzana we’re talking about! A tiny spider ain’t gonna hurt her!”

“On the contrary,” Jack replied, “one bite from a redback spider can kill an elephant.”

Thema fainted again on top of Tope. “Stop traumatising the elephant!” Tope snapped. 

“Is there a cure?” Jack turned to his mother. “There has to be a cure!”

“There is,” she replied, pointing to a picture in the book. “The root of the Mububu flower. Unfortunately, they only grow on top of waterfalls.”

“Well, we’ll just have to go there and find some,” Jack said, making ready to go. 

“Jack, I’m fine,” Tarzana insisted, grabbing his arm. 

“Without that antidote, you will case to be fine! In fact, you will just plain cease!”

“Well, then, I’m coming too!” 

She fixed him with a stubborn look. Jack sighed. “Fine, but we have to hurry!”

“Quite so,” agreed Professor Porter, grabbing her chemistry bag. “Someone will need to mix up the antidote.” 

“Three bananas says Jack gives up before we get to the falls,” Tope muttered to Thema, not realising that Jack was standing right behind him. 

“Oh, Jack, I didn’t see you lurking, um, standing there, not lurking,” Thema gabbled, causing Tope to turn, though not in alarm. 

Jack smiled, amused. “That’s alright, Thema. As befits a proper English gentleman like me, I shall take the high road and not dignify such remarks with an answer.”

***

The journey to the waterfall was long, arduous and filled with many obstacles. Jack worried about Tarzana, in spite of her insistences that she was fine. He couldn’t help wondering if that was true or whether she was just being brave and stubborn, as ever. He shook his head. Much as he loved her, he wished that sometimes she could admit when she needed help, or when something was wrong. 

“We never worried about spider bites before Jack came along,” Tope grumbled. 

“Speak for yourself,” Thema replied, “I know I did.” 

“Pah! You worry about everything!”

“But what if this is serious? What if Tarzana dies?”

“Well...” Tope stopped and shook his head. “That couldn’t happen. Not to Tarzana. Could it?”

“Jack seems to think so.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m on about!” Tope snapped. “He rolls off a boat and suddenly, wham, he knows everything about the jungle! Looking good, T!” he called up to Tarzana, swinging on a vine. “How you doin’ back there?” he threw back to Jack.

“Fine!” Jack replied, even though he was struggling over a giant tree root. “Doing quite well here, actually! Whoa!”

He wobbled and almost fell but then Tarzana grabbed him. He smiled, gratefully at her. “Yes, thank you.”

“I forget,” drawled Tope as Tarzana set off again, “who’s helpin’ who?”

“That’s whom,” Jack corrected him. “Who’s helping whom?”

“Whatever! Your fancy talk ain’t gonna get us to the falls any faster!”

Jack gritted his teeth. “You are taking the high road, Jack,” he muttered. 

“Going up!” Thema grinned, lifting the Professor over the root with her trunk. 

“Oh, thank you, Thema, much obliged,” she replied with a smile. 

“Let’s press on, shall we,” said Jack, attempting to sound casual. 

“Don’t you mean shall whom?” Tope mocked. 

“No, I mean, shall we? Really, Tope, your grammar is just-argh!”

The last came because an enormous python was suddenly leering at them from the trees. Tarzana jumped down at once and pinned it to the ground. The snake hissed and then lunged at Thema, who screamed, but Tarzana seized it and began to wrestle it. 

“She’s slowing,” Jack muttered.

“The spider venom’s affecting her motor skills,” Professor Porter replied, anxiously. 

The fight came to an abrupt halt as suddenly both Tarzana and the snake topped over the edge of the nearby cliff and everyone gasped. However, Jack’s fears were assuaged when she quickly clambered up over the edge of the cliff, a little bedraggled but unharmed. 

“Darling, are you alright?” Jack worried, pulling her up. 

“Of course she is,” exclaimed Tope. “Nothing can hurt my buddy Tarzana, right?”

“I’m fine,” Tarzana insisted, breathlessly. 

“Well, let’s hurry on,” the Professor replied, “the sooner we get to the flowers, the better.”

No one noticed that Tarzana was actually trembling, and not out of fear. Something was wrong with her body, and she suspected that it might be the spider venom causing her to twitch uncontrollably. She did her best to hide it, however, as they continued onwards.

***

“Tarzana,” Jack said, “I’m sure Thema wouldn’t mind carrying you if you want to take it a bit easier.”

“Actually, my back’s playing up a bit,” Thema replied.

“I don’t need to be carried,” Tarzana insisted, hurrying onwards.

“Unlike some people we know,” Tope added, making no attempt to hide the scorn in his voice. 

Tarzana stopped at the chasm ahead and tried to focus on a vine that could swing her across. “I’ll swing it back for you,” she said. 

“I don’t think that’s such a good-” began Jack but Tarzana was already jumping for the vine, even though her vision was too blurred to focus, and her limbs felt heavy. To Jack’s horror, she missed the vine and plummeted down into the greenery below. 

“Tarzana!” everyone cried with one voice and then Thema snatched them all upon her back, bad muscles be blowed, she thought, and started tearing down the slope after her. Jack’s heart was in his mouth as he saw that she was out cold and being circled by a pack of wild jackals. 

“Back off, fleabags!” Tope shouted, taking one out as he swung down on a vine and knocked it away from Tarzana as she started to come around. 

“Get away!” Jack cried, scaring several others by starting a rockfall. 

“Back! Back, I say!” the Professor shouted, hitting out at them with a branch. “We’ve had quite enough of your shenanigans!” 

The rest were frightened away by Thema as she charged them with a loud trumpet. Jack leapt to Tarzana’s side and helped her up.”Are you alright?”

She managed a smile and then collapsed. 

“Hey, get up, you kidder!” Tope said, uneasily, ruffling her hair. And then, seeing the way she was twitching, he frowned. “Ok, maybe there’s something to this spider bite after all.”

***

By the time they got to the waterfall, with Tarzana strapped to Thema’s back, she seemed to be in a worst condition than ever. “We need to hurry,” Jack said. 

“Someone needs to stay with Tarzana,” the Professor replied. “I’ll do that.”

“Me too,” Thema added, quickly. “You know I’m not great on heights.”

“Right.” Tarzana opened her eyes, momentarily regaining consciousness, and Jack fell down beside her. “I’m off to get the flower.”

“Please! By the time you get there, she’ll have died of old age!” Tope snapped. “I’ll go!”

“Go...together,” Tarzana managed to say, before passing out again.

Tope groaned. 

“Be strong, love,” Jack whispered, kissing her forehead. 

***

“So, where are the flowers?” Tope exclaimed. 

Jack looked around. They had reached the top of the waterfall, and, to both their dismay, there were no flowers to be seen. 

“I don’t get it!” Jack whipped around, hoping to spot one hidden away in the grass somewhere, even a small one, but seeing none.

“No flowers! No roots! No time to look anywhere else!” Tope wailed. “Tarzana’s gonna die!”

“Wait!” Jack pointed over the waterfall. “There!” The flower was protruding from a rock in the middle. “Now, all we have to do is get to it.” He grabbed a decent sized vine from the trees, snapping it off and then thrust one end at Tope. “You hold this and I’ll swing down and grab the flower.”

“You can’t pull this off!” Tope protested. 

Jack finally snapped. “The high road ends here!” he declared, whirling to face Tope. “Listen, you-you-you can like or dislike me! I couldn’t care a whit! But right now Tarzana’s life is in danger, so just keep your mouth shut and hold that vine!”

Tope blinked at him as Jack, with the other end of the vine tied around his waist, jumped over the waterfall’s edge. “Oh, he’s gutsy,” he admitted. “Stupid, but gutsy!”

***

“Tarzana?” On the ground, Thema felt Tarzana’s brow. She was having hallucinations and had just seen a vision of Professor Porter turning into Lady Clarice, the woman who had been responsible for her gorilla mother Yejide’s death. 

“Hurry, Jack,” the Professor muttered, glancing up at the waterfall. 

***

Jack finally grabbed the flower in mid-swing. “Got it!” he exclaimed. Then, the vine snapped and he found himself falling and just managed to grab the rock to keep from plummeting to his death. Up on top of the waterfall, Tope, upon seeing the vine has snapped, gasped and jumped into the water to grab the other end. “Got it!” he cried, and then, “But who’s got me?” as he fell over the waterfall edge. Luckily the vine held fast as it hit the rock and caused Jack and Tope to swing from it, facing one another, wet through but safe. 

“The vine broke!” Tope cried. “I didn’t let go! Honest!”

“I know, Tope!” Jack smiled. “You wouldn’t do that.”

“So, what now?” Tope asked. 

Jack glanced at the rock. “Can you climb up to the top of that rock without letting go?”

Tope grinned. “Not a problem.”

Once he was up there, Tope tied the end he had climbed up around the rock and Jack was able to swing across to a nearby tree branch. He untied the rope from around his waist and then, gripping it firmly, called “Now you swing down!”

“Way ahead of ya!” Tope called, and then he swung down to the ground. Jack joined him and they both hugged in delight. “We did it!”

“Oh, yeah, knew we could!” Tope drawled. 

They both hurried up to the Professor and as she began to mash up the root of the flower into a liquid, Jack pulled Tarzana across his lap, holding her in a half-sitting position. Tope and Thema watched with baited breath as the Professor finally poured the antidote into Tarzana’s mouth. There was a moment’s heartbeat and then Tarzana opened her eyes and smiled up at Jack. 

“Welcome back to the land of the living,” Tope smiled. 

Tarzana hugged Jack firmly and then Tope tapped her on the shoulder. “Hey! It was a team effort!”

Tarzana laughed and pulled him into the hug as well. 

***

“Yep!” Thema smiled up at the two “lovebirds” swinging through the trees. “Jack’s the perfect mate for our Tarzana.”

“Yeah, he’s ok,” Tope agreed, and then, to save face, added, “But he still swings like a two day old chimp! I mean, I’m gonna have to teach him myself if this gets any worse...!”


End file.
